Snap!

Vaughan provides enough energy and raw storytelling material in this Australian import to turn the most exhausted parent into a Scheherazade. As she did in Dorobo the Dangerous, Vaughan brings an ear-pleasing, rib-tickling sensitivity to language as she cooks up a unique animal tale. Joey, a kangaroo, invites a series of creatures to play. He plays ""Hide-and-squeak"" with a mouse, ""Pass-the-mudpie"" with a platypus, and so forth until a crocodile suggests his sly game--""Snap!""--and snaps his jaws shut around them all. But they tickle his tonsils until the ""wiggling-jiggling, twittering-jittering, rollicking-frollicking, reeling-feeling zinging up and down and all around his bumpy body"" forces a smile and out pop the animals. The zesty wordplay, repetition and rhyme make this a natural read-aloud. First-time illustrator Hutchinson's torn paper collages evoke stained glass with their suggestion of translucency. An illustrated endnote about the Australian animal cast rounds out this jazzy offering. Ages 3-7. (May)